Count = 100 with the 6 coming soon channels
Count = 80 without the 14 west channels
Count = 83 without 17 west channels when counting coming soon channels
The two Beijing channels were not counted in either count

Just an FYI for anyone in the Sheridan area of Pittsburgh, I've had a couple of Verizon trucks outside my house on Middletown Road these past couple of weeks, so I asked what was going on and the guy said they were installing FIOS cable! Looks like our area will be ready when the city and Verizon come to an agreement.

Comcast (spellchecker on this site suggested Compost) messed up my billing when Verizon ported my number. Comcast kicked me out of the bundle that I was in, took me out of the digital tier. Since my phone number was ported I couldn't get my digital channels back and was locked out of my account. I couldn't get my original package back until I made 4 phone calls to 4 different service people and 1 supervisor. My Comcast bill instead of being $155 for all three services for August is now $390. They must know what's coming since the phone from them was being switched to a different provider. Hose the customer since they are leaving.

I'm still going back and forth between FIOS TV and Dish after I move and one huge factor for me is WPCW-HD which I can't get on any sat provider right now. I don't think I can give up stuff like ScifiHD though so it's imperative that FIOS have at least the lineup that's outlined in that PDF and not what's currently on the website for zip code 15237.

Verizon has started offering two english speaking television packages,Fios TV Essentials, and Fios TV Extreme HD. Neither at this time lists FSN-HD on the programming guide. The TV Essentials plan offers 267 channels of programming, but only includes 7 HD channels, mostly locals. The ExtremeHD package lists 312 channels including 39 non-premium HD channels. The ExtremeHD package also includes the sports tier channels that were previously added at an additional cost. (golf, tennis, sportsman and outdoor channels...etc) When viewing the PDF formatted channel line up there is a discrepancy in the number of HD channels available, 57 channels are listed, still no FSN-HD. There are listings for Versus/Golf-HD and Tennis Channel HD.

If you add the premium HD content, the PDF Verision program guide for Whitehall lists an additional 42 Channels. If I'm adding correctly, that is 99 HD channels in all. Verizon says they will offer 100 HD channels by years end. Let's hope the missing piece is FSN-HD

All of the new HD channels are working. There was an article by rob Owen in the Post-Gazette Wednesday too.
I just had to call Verizon and re-subscribe to the extreme HD package.
Got a cheaper price too.

FSN channel is available but just the color bars are showing. No HD programing to show yet. That's ok for now, I just hope the game will be on Thursday, it's an HD scheduled game.

This is all great news because I'm set to have FIOS installed on the 28th.

I'm not sure what programming package I'm getting at this point though since I ordered it on Oct 2nd before they started this ExtremeHD package. It shouldn't be a major hassle to get it switched to that if that's not what they're giving me though.

CAN NOT WAIT to be off of Comcast. Finally I get to tell them to take a hike after jerking around Ross for the past few years.

I am thinking about switching over to FIOS when it is available in my area, which is to be soon. Currently, I can pull in all he Locals in HD as well as some other digital channel stations through my QAM tuners in my bedroom TV and upstairs TV. I do not want to pay for additional HD boxes. Can anyone confirm Verizon leaves HD locals unencrypted for pick-up thru QAM? Thanks!

I also found out last night that these boxes suck at scaling and de-interlacing.

I had the tech hook the box up via HDMI. I also had him set the 4:3 Override to 480p because:

a) I don't like my 4:3 SD material stretched
b) I didn't want the box scaling it to 1080i because it prevents me from using certain zoom modes on my TV so I can zoom letterboxed SD material so it fits the screen.

I had to select 480p over 480i because I know from experience that my Samsung LCD doesn't accept 480i over HDMI.

Well, I was rewiring things last night, trying to figure out how to fit 4 HDMI devices on a two port TV with only a two port HDMI switch and the cable box lost the battle. I switched it to component input and then set the 4:3 override back to 480i since the TV has no trouble getting 480i over component. Holy crap did it make a difference in SD image quality. When outputting 480p over HDMI, the box introduced all sorts of artifacts that look like edge enhancement. 480i over component looks almost DVD quality when watching certain material (like cartoons on Adult Swim.)

Well, I was rewiring things last night, trying to figure out how to fit 4 HDMI devices on a two port TV with only a two port HDMI switch and the cable box lost the battle. I switched it to component input and then set the 4:3 override back to 480i since the TV has no trouble getting 480i over component. Holy crap did it make a difference in SD image quality. When outputting 480p over HDMI, the box introduced all sorts of artifacts that look like edge enhancement. 480i over component looks almost DVD quality when watching certain material (like cartoons on Adult Swim.)

That was a question I was going to ask you on the Comcast thread. My "man room" TV is a 6 year old RP and does not have HDMI ports, only component. I was wondering what you used because you were very high on the picture quality of the Fios over the Comast HD channels. So it sounds like the SD is better with component, but have you noticed any difference in HD channels? My other 2 HD sets are LCD and have HDMI so I want to get it right the first time.

Here's the reason why the cable box "lost" the competition for HDMI connection. I originally wanted the HDMI connection because my Samsung LCD has a 1:1 pixel mapping mode called "JustScan" which is only available on HDMI input with 1080i/p sources. It completely and totally eliminates overscan. However, I found the output from the Moto DVR introduced too much edge noise on all channels. I had a green band running down the right side of the screen (note, I do think this is something that's resolved in the IMG1.6 update). So, I figured if I couldn't use the JustScan feature, I might as well just hook it up with component and free up the HDMI for something else.

If you want SD material to be passed though untouched as 480i, make sure you tell the install tech that. By default they are instructed to put it in stretch mode due to customer complaints about "not filling my TV screen." If it gets set to something else anyways, you have to access the setup menu of the box. To do so, you turn the box off and immediate hit select until the diagnostic screen comes up. Then hit the menu button and you should get the selections to change the output. Depending on the setup, you may or may not see it on the TV and will have to use the box display to set it. 4:3 override has 4 settings:

Off - upconverts to the HD output of the box, usually 1080i
480i - basically passes it unchanged
480p - tries to deinterlace it, I was not impressed with the results
stretch - I'm unsure of the resolution, but it stretches the image to be 16:9. It probably outputs at the HD resolution set.

Really, these are all the same settings as the moto HD-DVR from comcast as they are nearly the same hardware. FWIW, I had it set on 480p on my comcast box for the past year because i was using HDMI, I probably could have had better SD quality there too if I would have had it set at 480i with component.

The thing that really gets me about the SD image quality is the contrast, specifically the black level. I'm so used to SD material on cable having a black level approaching gray with speckles of noise that it really floors me to see actual black with no wavering in the image.

We got a message on each box this morning stating that we have a new IMG (no version was stated IIRC). There seems to be some new options here and there as well as about 5 new widgets. Was there supposed to be more?

The HD Zoom button finally works which is a godsend on HD stations that insist on showing SD material letterboxed. I don't have a zoom mode in 16:9 mode on my TV so this works great.

VOD seems much snappier. There are more options for the keypad when doing search. You can change your video format and SD overrride from within the guide now rather than having to access the diagnostic menu. When a DVR recording finishes, it brings you back to the recording itself in the DVR menu so you can easily delete it. They added some dynamic compression options for the audio (defaults to heavy, I turned them off). The scrub bar doesn't display when skipping forward or back on a DVR recording, but I noticed now it ignores the skip values you choose and just does 30 seconds forward 30 seconds back (bad IMO, I like my back to be 10 seconds.) There are two favorites lists now. When you are channel surfing, you can limit things by category by pressing right on the D-pad when the info is up.

I did notice that. It so slow on Saturday and Sunday (I had the new Fios install done on Sat morning) that I was going to call them to see what was up. It is much faster now. Possibly even faster than Comcast's was.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bull3964

They added some dynamic compression options for the audio (defaults to heavy, I turned them off).

Well that would explain why the volume was so darn loud when I turned the TVs on yesterday! I'll have to change that.

They pointed you to a URL for more info but I forget what it was. Something like www.verizon.com/fioscentral. Does anyone remember the exact URL or has anyone visited that site to see what it said?

I've been using it for awhile because you can see the TV listings there. I like browsing them on a computer much better than a STB for speed's sake. Eventually we are going to get the ability to set recordings through that website no matter where you are. Not exactly a innovative feature since my replayTV could do it 7 years ago, but as far as cable company software goes it's cutting edge.

I still may pick up a TiVo HD after the DVR trial runs out next year. The interface is still a ton better, the box hardware is better, and the monthly would be about the same after you pay TiVO and rent the cablecards. I would lose out as far as VOD goes on my main TV, but streaming netflix should fill that void nicely. Also, I could pony up to the new XL version that's coming out with a 1TB hard drive and not worry about filling the tiny 160gb drive in these things with a couple HD recordings (also, who knows what TiVo models may be out by next year.)